The present invention relates generally to means for retaining a lid or cover with a housing. More particularly, the present invention relates to means for retaining a cover with a housing or container that does not require any assembly hardware.
Many housings have hinges which are used to guide their associated cover which also serves the purpose of retaining the cover with a housing. However, such hinges usually require assembly hardware in order to fasten the two portions of a hinge together and to attach the hinge to the housing and to the cover. Yet in other applications, particularly CATV distribution systems, housings have been designed without hinges or means for retaining the cover with the housing. In such cases, when the cover is removed from the housing the cover must be held or stored in some location while work is being performed on electronics within the housing itself. If the cover is held, then the repairman is left with only one free hand with which to do the repair.
Enclosures used in CATV distribution systems typically contain electronic circuitry and therefore an access opening must be available to install the circuitry or on occasion to repair or replace the circuitry. In many applications the circuitry is attached directly to a lid or cover for the opening and if the circuitry is of the throw-away type in case of failure, then removal and replacement of the cover is all that is required in order to install new circuitry. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a cover that is easily replaceable and yet can be retained with the housing when access to the interior of the housing is required.
In view of the foregoing, it should now be understood that it would be desirable to provide an improved cover retaining means that would solve the above and other problems.
Accordingly, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a retaining means to retain a cover with a housing and which does not require assembly hardware and which allows the cover to be removed from the housing without detaching any hardware.
Another object of the invention is to provide a retaining means that can be cast or molded as part of the housing and a cover.